How the Crusades Changed the World
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June 23, 2014

How the Crusades Changed the World
The Dark Ages were a time of cultural recession for Western Europe. The barbarian invasions during the fifth and sixth centuries had obliterated the Roman Empire in the West. The wisdom of the lost Empire was nothing more than a memory. The Crusades offered endless opportunity and provided exposure the knowledge, culture, and resources that fueled the European progression into the Renaissance; a fortuity that shifted both cultural and religious power in the modern world.
By the end of the 10th century, Western Europe was destitute. The inhabitants could not farm their land properly, and soon a cycle of famine, flood, and disease began to dictate the lives of the people. The only surviving institution was the Western Church in Rome. Roman popes soon began to challenge the Byzantine emperors for ultimate control of the church. Tension grew between the two branches of Christianity, which lead to cultural, theological, and irreconcilable differences between the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe and the Greek Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire (Stalcup, 2000). This event, known as the East-West Schism in 1054, was a precursor to the Protestant Reformation (Stalcup, 2000).
Meanwhile, a holy war in Spain between Christian Europeans and Muslims terrorized the outskirts of Rome during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Western Europe became very accustomed to religious war as battles between themselves and against Muslims seemed to plague the Medieval Era. Finally, a plea for help came from the Byzantine Empire. A Turkish clan, named the Seljuks, had invaded Byzantine territory in Asia Minor and had overthrown the Egyptian Muslims in Jerusalem. As a result, Westerners could no longer travel safely into Jerusalem as they had before. In protest, the Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes decided to challenge the Seljuks in Armenia but was finally captured after a devastating defeat (Stalcup, 2000). The Byzantines could no longer keep the Seljuks off their land, reducing the Byzantine territory to a small strip of land around Constantinople (Stalcup, 2000). The new emperor, Alexius I Comnenus, attempted to fight the Seljuks, but by 1090, he realized he needed assistance. His plea to the West, in the form of a letter to Pope Urban III, touched the religious leaders of Rome. Despite their previous conflict with the Greek Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholics found it beneficial to help the Byzantine Empire in their battle against the Muslims. There were several incentives for Western Europe to participate in the Crusades. The Roman Catholic Church of the West saw it as a perfect opportunity to extend the papal power into the Byzantium and eventually unite the two churches under one authority. Pope Urban III had also portrayed the pilgrimage into Jerusalem as “a holy war of liberation which would push back the frontiers of the infidel and extend the power of the Roman Church” (Armstrong, 2001, p.66). The feudal society of France (and eventually parts of England, Italy, and Sicily) supplied military force and heavy cavalry at every stage in the hierarchy (Stalcup, 2000). These knights and feudal barons were promised land and other material gains by the Pope, who knew of the economic struggles that previous feudal wars had brought upon them. Economic factors also urged the common people of Europe to find independence and freedom from otherwise destitute existence. At last, the Islamic world was known for its plentiful resources, advanced civilization, and military expertise (Stalcup, 2000). Conquering the Muslims meant defeating infidels and greatly enhancing Western European political power.
In fact, the Islamic world was far more advanced than Western Europe during the Medieval Era. The Golden Age of Islam, which lasted from the years 800 to 1200, was a time of impressive intellectual and scientific advancement (Stalcup, 2000). The renowned philosophy of the ancient Greeks had filtered through a Syriac channel and stimulated the creative activity of the Muslim world (Stalcup, 2000). The Muslims extended their basis of knowledge and excelled in the fields of mathematics, medicine, history, geography, logic, philology, music, astronomy, chemistry, and physics (Stalcup, 2000). According to Stalcup (2000), “The brilliant culture of Islam shone the more brightly by contrast with the stagnant Byzantines and the barbarous Latins” (p.180). The spread of Islam also intimidated and threatened the Western and Byzantine civilizations. By 717, the Muslims had conquered the Persian Empire, southern Spain, the northern coast of Africa, some territory near India, and of course, Jerusalem.
Pope Urban III called for a great holy war against the infidels on November 27, 1095 (McKay, 2007). He demanded that the knights of Europe cease their fighting and unite against a common enemy. He “called this expedition a pilgrimage, not simply because of the destination to Jerusalem, but because a large collective pilgrimage was the only model adequate for the massive offensive he had envisaged” (Armstrong, 2001, p.67). The people of Western Europe were more than willing to join the battle with the Byzantines against Islam; however, after 175 years of fighting, the Crusades failed to fulfill their primary mission.
The cultural balance of the world was permanently changed as a result of the Crusades despite their military failure. Except for in Spain, where the Europeans had been permanently eradicated the Muslims, Islam still possessed power in the Mediterranean and Jerusalem (Stalcup, 2000). Nonetheless, the great holy war offered Westerners much more valuable resources than territory. The Crusaders who remained in the Outremer adopted the customs of the native people and learned the Arabic language. Soon European families began living among Jews and Muslims in the Middle East. As Europeans began to expand into the Orient, they were exposed to new types of agriculture. Over time these new crops, including plums, dates, cucumbers, and sugar cane, trickled into Sicily and the Byzantium. The holy war also revived “trade with the East, and its gradual growth ultimately reached unparalleled heights in European history” (Stalcup, 2001, p. 137). The most important contribution was still the influx of knowledge from the East. Scholarly works were translated from Arabic and began to appear in schools. In the 13th century, Western European schools started focusing on the science and knowledge of the Arabic world. Universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Toulouse, and Montpellier spread the importance of the natural sciences throughout the elite classes of Europe (Stalcup, 2000). In many ways, the Crusades were responsible for the intellectual revival of Europe known as the Renaissance.
Consequently, Western Europe began to flourish, and the Byzantine Empire began to fade away. During the Fourth Crusade, soldiers “indulged in irreparable destruction” (Stalcup, 2000, p. 169) of Constantinople, that dispersed the Greek scholars who found refuge in Italy (Stalcup, 2000). The Italian Renaissance thrived in the 14th and 15th centuries as Byzantine art inspired the era’s greatest thinkers and artists. Politically, the Byzantine Empire was weak as the Crusaders ultimately debilitated the Byzantine’s defense. The Turks were then able to penetrate the heart of the Byzantium and expose the Christians of the Balkans, Syria, and Anatolia to persecution and slavery (Stalcup, 2000).
Another issue left unresolved by the Crusades was the unification of the church. Years earlier, the East-West Schism had divided the two sects of Christianity and, to the Pope’s disappointment, they remained divided. The situation only worsened when another conflict occurred between two popes. From 1378 to 1417, Western Christendom was split between opposing religious authorities; Clement VII of France and Urban VI of Rome (McKay, 2007). The schism damaged the church’s reputation and legitimacy. The lack of confidence in the authority of the papacy eventually led to the Protestant Reformation. Although the Crusades had happened over 200 years prior, a definite link can be made between the holy war and the Reformation. The goal of the Crusades was to protect Christianity from the infidels, yet the destruction of the Byzantine proved otherwise.
The Popes were far more anxious to keep the unwilling Greeks under their ecclesiastical rule than to rescue Jerusalem. The Crusades had become a movement not for the protection of Christendom but for the establishment of the authority of the Roman Church. (Stalcup, 2000, p.169)
The negligence of the Latins in protecting the Byzantine left an everlasting resentment between the Greeks and the Romans. The deep wounds of the past soon resurfaced when the power of the church and the papacy was questioned by Martin Luther in 1517 (McKay, 2007).
The decline of the Islamic world was caused by the invading Turks rather than the Crusaders. Nevertheless, the constant interference from the Western world left the Muslims unable to meet Mongol aggression (Stalcup, 2000). The Umayyad Caliphate was overthrown as the Mongols advanced towards Egypt. Fortunately, the Mamluks defeated the invading forces in 1260, protecting the Muslim world (Szczepanski, 2014). Although the Crusades had done little physical damage, the brutal religious wars had a significant effect on the spirit of Islam. Before the Crusades, Muslims were relatively tolerant of Christian and Jewish believers as they were considered People of the Book. Be that as it may, the fierce intolerance of the Christian soldiers altered the humanity of Islam. The once intellectual and progressive world enclosed itself behind a stagnant curtain of intolerance and faith on account of the Crusades.
The Crusades were both a victory and a tragedy. Western Europe sought religious power, territorial expansion, and material gains but instead received a vast source of knowledge, resources, and trade networks. The Church’s intention to abolish Islamic presence and reclaim Jerusalem was an ultimate failure, as was the hope of uniting the Greek and Latin churches. Nonetheless, the Crusades took Western Europe from the dormant Dark Ages and into the Renaissance. Regrettably, the revival of the West came at a high price. Weakened by war, the Byzantine Empire dissolved; leaving a history of religious turmoil between Romans and Greeks that later instigated the Protestant Reformation. Perhaps the greatest tragedy was the ceaseless intolerance between Christians, Muslims, and Jews that was incited by the Crusades. Regardless of intellectual and scientific advancements made possible by the Medieval holy wars, the Crusades still caused irreparable damage to the Islamic and Jewish cultures. Thus, the Crusades were both a success and a failure as they propelled some civilizations into the future and held others in the past.

References
Armstrong, K. (2001). Holy War The Crusades and Their Impact on Today’s World. New York, NY: Anchor Books.
McKay, J. P., Hill, B. D., & Buckler, J. (2007). A History of World Societies (7th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.
Stalcup, B. (2000). The Crusades. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc..
Szczepanski, K. (2014). What Effect Did the Crusades Have on the Middle East? Retrieved from http://asianhistory.about.com/od/middleeast/f/Effect-Crusades-Middle-East.htm